low kaplan scores and passed the NCLEX

Published Sep 24, 2009

3 Posts

My first time using the trainers I never hit a 60, let alone a 65 which is what everyone was saying. I was a little bit discouraged because my friends and classmates had been averaging in the uppers 50s to 60s. I want to tell you all not to be discouraged.. and to just keep at it.

QT1: 57

QT2: 52

QT3: 44

QT4: 51

QT5: 52

QT6:51

QT7: 51

I would do my weak sections first. Even if I had been through it once, I went through it over and over... making sure I understood why the answer was the correct answer. KEEP ON DOING YOUR QBANKS. TAKE NOTES OFF OF THE RATIONALES. WATCH THE VIDEOS. FOr 5-6 weeks, 3-5 hours every night weeks this is what I did. I did about 150-200 questions a day. For the first 2 weeks my scores would fluctuate.. and by the end when I had reviewed rationales, I was scoring in the 70s. don't get discouraged.. just keep studying! My scores went from the low 50s initially to the 70s-80s. I went through the trainer tests twice. And again took notes off the ones I did not understand.

My percent correct off items used started off in the lows 50s and by the time I took my NCLEX.. it was at 63% .

I passed the NCLEX with close to 250 questions. Yes like almost everyone I walked out feeling like I had failed... but this morning I found out I passed =]

The other book I used aside from Kaplan was Prioritization, Delegation, and Assignment by Lacharity and Kumagai. EXCELLENT reference in my opinion. at least 30-40% percent of questions are about which client to see first, who to assign an LVN or CNA or RN.

Towards the end, to test my knowledge I would pull random books off the shelves at barnes and noble and open them to the tests and answer random questions. I was getting at least 75% if not half the questions right.

i had reason to be very nervous.. look at those QT scores! but i made myself study hard, so when i took them again i would raise my grade. i wasnt about memorizing the answer.. it was all about studying the content and knowing how to answer the question.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!!